Happy St Patrick’s Day …

… to all! Hope you’re having a suitably Irish and celebratory time. Tonight we have Irish sausages and potato on the menu, so we’re doing our best. In the meantime, here’s this morning’s meditation:

Meditation 93

In the night shadows
the dead cane
sighs and stretches.

From its dry skin
flow buds, blossom
and finally the grey-green

husk of almonds.
Let your prayers be brief,
wrapped in memory’s fragrance.

The excitement of last night is that our Glyndebourne tickets for the season have at last arrived, together with the menus (a distinct food theme is arising here, I think …) so I have had fun trying to work out what I might like to eat. The most interesting new dish is likely to be Tomato Farce – which raises strange visions of waiters bringing a tomato to your table and then dropping their trousers. How very Glyndebourne, my dears.

Today, I am attempting to sort out what I might need to take for our upcoming office move – my main problem is where my fluffy pens and snowstorms might go. Perhaps they can have their own desk? They’re definitely worth it, though I’m not sure the boss will entirely agree. Ah well. And astonishingly I have, with the wind behind me, actually drawn up a draft set of parental guidelines for the boss to check, hurrah! I am indeed a genius (ho ho). Speedy too. Though, no doubt, the corrections needed will be numerous …

At lunchtime I walked into town and paid in my advance cheque from Dreamspinner Press for The Bones of Summer, hurrah! Hell, I so nearly sound like a real writer there – I’ll try to hang onto that feeling for as long as possible. Hey ho. I also managed to get a copy of the Radio Times for next week and, to my utter delight, Lewis is on at 9pm on Sunday night. Ah serious bliss. We’ll be glued. Oh, and I’ve been luxuriating in my weekly decaff cappuccino from Starbucks. Wonderful.

On the way home, I popped into see if Gladys is any more amenable this week. Answer – not really, but at least she now has her bird table refilled. Sigh. She seems to be happier if I just don't speak. A statement which reminds me of my dating years indeed. And tonight I really have to do some ironing or we’re in danger of becoming too used to the crumpled look. Might watch the programme on Picasso while I’m doing it too. I rather enjoy Picasso.

I'm also thrilled to see that Maloney's Law has been given a five star review on Amazon US by a lovely individual called Amos Lassen (thank you so much, Amos!) and it can be found here and I also include it below:

"I do not know why I have never read Anne Brooke before but I am sure going to continue reading her after having read Maloney's Law. She can really tell a story and her plot is mesmerizing. Paul Maloney, a small time private investigator, takes a case from his married ex-lover, Dominic Allen, and he soon finds himself in the middle of big business dealings and the world of international crime. The more involved he becomes, he realizes that he is danger of losing everything that is important to him. If he could center his attention on his job he would probably be ok but instead he gets more and more embroiled. What really makes this novel so special is the way Brooke draws her character of Maloney and his opposite Dominic. Maloney is so real that you feel like screaming at him when he does something wrong and drying his tears when he cries. He is strong and breaks into a building that he must force his way out of. We feel his danger and sense his emotional upheavals; Dominic is the kind of guy who is a source of grief for Maloney simply because he is the ex. The plot is tight and consistent throughout. Replete with details I found the book to be intriguing and the book is abundant with realism. There is one scene that will keep you on the edge of the chair. This is one good read that has whetted my appetite for more."

Well, that's certainly made my day for sure!

Today’s nice things:

1. Poetry
2. Glyndebourne tickets
3. Finishing Draft One of the parental guidelines
4. Paying in the Bones advance cheque
5. The thought of Lewis
6. Decaff cappuccino
7. Picasso
8. The five-star Maloney's Law review

Anne Brooke
Anne's website - discovering her Irish roots, somewhere ...